1. Field of the Disclosure
The present disclosure relates to the field of telecommunications networks.
2. Description of the Related Art
Performance and associated grade of service provided over communications networks, such as Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) networks, can be highly variable, due to a variety of factors including impairments in lines or links used for transmitting content, loop length, crosstalk, extreme weather conditions, etc. Parameters such as bit rate and noise margin are typically measured by scalar diagnosis methods, and technicians often make subjective determination of whether a particular measurement indicates a problem with a line because performance parameters sometimes vary over time and due to varying load on the lines. Scalar trouble diagnosis methods typically look at the current reported performance values and trouble isolation, and trouble restoration is often driven by subjective determinations of the tester.
Subjective determinations can be difficult to audit since different technicians may have different opinions as to whether a problem requires immediate repair. Auditability and transparent traceability of current performance levels and the “expected” performance levels for a single line, group of lines, such as neighborhood, city, state, and the entire network is typically not done and is often uncorrelated to historical or neighborhood benchmarks.
Therefore, a need exists for an improved method and system to determine performance of network lines, trouble shoot lines and manage the overall performance of such lines.